Caverns
by Blue Midnight
Summary: In a field trip to some caverns, two boys will have to decide what is more important, their pride or their life. Slight slash.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing, zip nilch. So put the lawsuit away folks.  
  
Caverns  
  
Chapter 1  
  
"Okay, welcome to the Tether Carverns," the falsely smiling woman looked at the rather bored school children, "I'll be your tourguide, it'll be a event you kiddies will remember for a long time," the woman, also known as Miss Major wondered if that was avoidable. She didn't want to to remember a load of snot-nosed kids.  
  
A redhaired boy turned to a girl with thick glasses and a smaller rounder boy, Miss Major wasn't positive but he looked like he would most likely cause a lot of trouble. She looked down at her register of the kids. She had been warned against one by the name of Carl Foutley, maybe that was him.  
  
"This will be so great," Carl gushed, "do you suppose we'll get some bats. That'd be so cool," Carl grinned. "Train them, and scare Gripling or Higsby, or maybe both."  
  
The girl, Noelle smiled, "Blake already seems scared, he hasn't stopped sweating since we got into these caves." The three looked to where the youngest of the class was sitting very near the entrance. He did seem nervous.  
  
"Probably afraid of the dark," Hoodsey laughed. The platinum blonde must have heard him as Blake scowled darkly at Hoodsey.  
  
"Shows how much you know Woodsey," Blake retorted. He winced as the two boys merely chuckled.  
  
"Then prove it," said Carl, his face was more serious than before, "go on. I bet your too chicken to go right down into the bottom levels of the caverns," Carl grinned evily, "where it's really dark."  
  
"I am not afraid of the dark," hissed Blake, looking nervously at the other children who thankfully weren't paying any attention to them. "I am not afraid of the dark," he repeated. He tried to ignore the fact that he was afraid of actually being in these caves which scared him. Though he was not going to be thought too scared to go to a simple field trip.  
  
"Alright then, Noelle, Hoodsey and me will be with you, just in case you need a hand to hold, we'll break away from the group. How about it, or are Griplings all talk."  
  
Once again, Blake's pride got the better of him, as it most commonly did. "Alright, we'll see who comes back with a smile on the other side of his face!" He stood up and rather forcefully shook their hands. He half forgot his fear in not making a fool of himself in front of Carl. He could not believe he had to go get a silly crush on Carl for all people, Brandon's monkey would have been a better choice.  
  
"We're getting left behind," Noelle pointed to the children who were leaving with the tourgude and teachers in a haphazard line. The four joined the line, Hoodsey and Noelle in front of Blake, with Carl behind, too close for his comfort.  
  
#*#*#*  
  
So far it had not been so bad. Miss Major's lecture on the stalamites and stalacites were quite interesting. Though the loud yawning heard from the class disagreed with this. Though for Blake it had kept his mind off the ever nearing walls, and what he had promised to do. So far they had stayed on the top levels of the caverns and there was still wafts of fresh air between the foul stench of stale air.  
  
Blake felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Carl's smirking face. He gestured for Blake to follow him, and crouching on knees and hands made their way through the class. From the corner of his eye he could see Noelle and Hoodsey do exactly the same. Soon Blake found himself near the entrance of the caverns, looking at a rather narrow dark corridor which sloped down, or at least that was what Noelle's torch has shown.  
  
"You want to back away now Gripling, last chance,"  
  
"Don't count on it," Blake replied, just as his mind screamed yes. He wiped a hand over his sweaty forehead and took a few deep calming steps. He moved rather slowly to the corridor, even his Gripling pride was not enough to make him move faster.  
  
"We don't have all day Blake," huffed Hoodsey. Blake spun round sharply.  
  
"I'm sorry, just trying to delay the time till you got yourself stuck," Blake retorted, a little sharper than he had meant to. Taking some uneasy steps and gritting his teeth he slid into the corridor, followed immediately after by Noelle, Carl and finally Hoodsey.  
  
Almost exactly six steps later he found the fear and panic which had gripped him in Sully caverns returning. The overwhelming fear of being trapped and Blake shivered, forgetting that Noelle was extremely close to him.  
  
"Ho.......how," Blake winced inwardly at the sound of his voice, "far down do we go?"  
  
"As far as we can," replied Carl cheefully,"we should keep going as far as possible in a straight line," Noelle waved her torch over Blake's shoulder. The sudden light made the walls seem impossibly near, and Blake felt he much preferred the dark.  
  
"We are almost out, we should take the second tunnel, it is easier to recognise," the corridor had almost come to a stop in a large roundish cave, with tunnels spewing from all directions. Blake almost found himself sprinting to get away from the cramp corridor to the more spacious tunnels.  
  
"Which one?" asked Carl, grinning Noelle pointed to a tunnel with a zig sag looking entrance.  
  
"We should............." the girl was interuppted by the sound of their names being called, "they have realised we have gone."  
  
At that moment Blake could have kissed each and every single one of his class mates.  
  
"Well," he grinned rather to cheerily at them, "I guess this means that we should go back, so sorry chaps, another time perhaps." he rather hurridly made his way to dark corridor which now for him seemed a wide beacon of light. That was untill he felt Carl rather forcifully pull him back.  
  
"Your still going down, I mean we did shake on," Carl put his face close to Blake's which had gone paper white. He turned to Hoodsey and Noelle who were waiting patiently, one at the larger tunnel, one at the dark narrow one. "Listen, go back and try to distract them, me and Blakey- boy here will go in the tunnel. Say you saw us come in here, but don't know which one we took." Hoodsey and Noelle nodded at this, it was a good plan Blake admitted to himself. It just would have been better if he had been going as well.  
  
As he watched with a heavy heart he wished not for the first time this day that he had left his school letter where it should have been left, in a trash can.  
  
TBC 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing, zip nilch. So put the lawsuit away folks.  
  
Caverns  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Carl could feel Blake, no sense him trembling beside him as they crept through the increasingly narrow and dark tunnels. They had been down there for over half an hour, yet Blake, while looking paler than Dazzling white sheets was still determined to go on. He had almost a mantra in his head, not to panic. It hadn't been as bad as Blake had anticipated, it was still horrible yet the constant walking, and increasingly musty air allowed him to imagine that he was somewhere else, really far away.  
  
Carl slumped down a wall of a tunnel, running a hand through his hair. "Want to rest for a bit," he asked Blake, as if they weren't in a cave but at a some sort of social gathering with friends and family. Carl looked at the flickering torch in his hand, "think the batteries are running out, hey Blakey-boy, got any batteries."  
  
Blake shook his head, barely listening to what the redhead may have been saying. The walls were getting closer, he was feeling the old rush of panic which had paralysed him before. It felt as if they were miles from anyone. Not to mention they might be lost, and noone would know where to find them........Blake breathed in and out slowly. He looked at Carl to see him looking quizzically at him.  
  
"What's the matter with you, afraid of the big bad bogey man," taunted Carl, he wacked the torch on his knee and grinned as it flickered into brighter existence, "stupid piece of junk, paid two jars of ladybugs for these. I knew that guy couldn't be trusted!" He shrugged dispondantly.  
  
"Ma.....maybe it'd work better if it wasn't on all the time, it looks rather cheap," suggested Blake, the darkness would offer some sort of comfort, "it really is......... an idiotic thing to leave something like that on all the...... time, though I don't suppose you'd know that," he gasped slightly as he finished talking, he felt more tired after that, than the walk through the tunnels.  
  
If Carl had looked puzzled before, he now looked positively confused, "why do do you want it........." realisation dawned on Carl's features, "your claustraphobic, aren't you."  
  
Blake turned his face away from Carl, his cheeks blushing, both from the oppressive cave and Carl finding out.  
  
"It's none of your business Foutley," Blake tried to say this as haughtily as he could, yet he still sounded as if he was scared of his own shadow.  
  
"You know you shouldn't have come if you were claustraphobic, that's kinda daft, you know!"  
  
"And leave it open for you lot to tease me about not being there, besides a Gripling does not back away from anything. Something a Foutley could never possibly understand."  
  
Carl scowled angrily at him. He was feeling "some" sympathy for the younger boy, but did he have ti be so arrogrant all the time. Noelle had said he looked as if he had thing on his chest. Hoodsey had said he was a spoilt brat, and had left it a that. Carl didn't know quite what to think. However it didn't stop him from retorting.  
  
"Yeah, cause we have the brains to do so," he drawled, "you really are pathetic coming here, what are you trying to prove anyway?" he glanced at Blake who it seemed hadn't heard a word he'd said, "are you even going to pretend to be listening to me."  
  
Blake didn't reply.  
  
Carl sighed, the itsy-bitsy part of him that was his conscience and out of order most of time seemed to wanting to make its presence known. It hadn't been as fun as he had thought it would be, he was sure they were both hungry, and more than a little thirsty. Sure, Blake needed taken down a couple thousand pegs but he did have a sensitive side, it was just under whole platoons of roungh edges and pickled frog jars. He roughly got to his feet, and rather harshly pulled Blake to his.  
  
"We're going back, no fun anymore," Carl muttered, trying to ignore the way Blake's face had lit up like a christmas tree with those words, "besides we............" a loud shaking noise filled the air, several jagged pieces of rocks were falling from the ceiling, dust blinding everything. Both boys as one launched themselves onto the floor, their heads protected by their arms.  
  
Eventually it stopped, though the dust still swirled around despite there being no breeze. Carl coughed dryly, his throat burning, from the corner of his eye he saw Blake cough and try to shake the greyish dust out of his hair. He then saw Blake's eye widen dramatically.  
  
"Carl," he whispered hoarsly, he pointed a dusty hand at where they had been headed back. Carl looked with trepidation, not really wanting to know. His own eyes widened as he saw it, the jagged rocks had fallen so it blocked the way out, the otherside was quite clear, but as they didn't know the way from there, it didn't matter.  
  
They were trapped, and there was nothing they could do about it.  
TBC and please review! 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own it, never have cause it belongs to someone else. I'm merely borrowing a few characters.

Caverns 

Chapter three

Carl stared at the entrance, or the lack of one for the longest time. He had read of such things happening to people in books and films. Before, he had laughed and joked about it, but it felt different now.

"We need to move those rocks," Carl murmured, feeling perhaps it had been their voices that had caused the cave-in, "come on," there was no answer, "Gripling! We need to move the-" he spun around to see Blake in up against the wall of the cave, he was breathing heavily and there was a look of a trapped animal in his stance.

Carl groaned, only just managing to stop himself from hitting his head on the wall. A concussion did not seem to be the way to go at the moment. He did though, for a fleeting moment consider doing it to Blake.

He bent down at the entrance and grasping one of the smaller rocks firmly, pulled with all his strength. The rock did not budge. He tried again with another rock, groping around the gritty surface to grip it better. Still nothing.

"We're going to die here," Carl spun round angrily as Blake made his statement.

"We are not going to die, don't be so stupid Gripling. We just need to get rid of these rocks, which we could if you bothered to help. But, no, you have to be all "we're going to die here!"

"We can't move those rocks. Anyway, what if moving those rocks causes another cave in...right on to our heads." Carl stared at Blake, than groaned audibly and sank on to the floor. He looked at his spluttering torch, watching it flicker shadows on the floor.

"They'll find us," they meaning the other students, "you're just wound-up cause of your claustrophobia. We'll be found. Hey, maybe we'll be on the news, we'll be famous. We've just got to wait it out for a bit, okay."

Blake nodded, although it was clear he did not believe a word of what the older boy had told him. A mantra was running through his head, of not panicking, not letting his fear overcome him, of not letting Carl see him as he had been in Sully caverns. The mere thought of the place made his heart beat like a drum. He had remembered his screams, how he had pushed the walls in an effort to try to push them back, to try to stop them moving, crushing him. He then remembered crying on Winston's shoulder, as he had been carried away.

No, Carl would not see that. He would not allow Foutley to see a Gripling like that. It was the only way in which he could keep calm, keep the fear away.

Steven Bellen, looked furiously at the two children in front of him. After the missing children had vanished, the rescue team that dealt with accidents in these caverns had been called. Steven Bellen, a thirty-two year old man, had done more than thirty rescues of ambitious archaeologists and other people, but never children.

He then watched as Bill, his flashlight on his helmet flashing brightly. His canary-yellow hair covered in dust and who-knows what and his face looked muddy.

"There isn't a soul there, it stops after a while. Them kids are lying, Stevey," Bill cocked his head at the girl with glasses and the blonde, podgy boy. Both opened their mouths in shock.

"They went in to that tunnel," Hoodsey protested. They had eventually told them where the other two had gone. Steven Bellen seemed to have a persona that did not take messing around.

"We are not lying, Carl and Blake went inside," Noelle spoke up, half worried for Carl; half angry with the guy she thought was called Bill.

Steven Bellen gave her a scornful look; "We'll get a full team down here, those kids probably made a turning. Hopefully they won't have gone far. Let's not have to make any awkward phone calls today." He got out a walkie-talkie and started to give instructions for his men to go into the tunnel, that Carl and Blake did not go in.

TBC


End file.
